One Day
by SimplyMe51
Summary: Flynn's the Librarian. He always figured he wouldn't exactly die old. Spoilers for the first two episodes. (Old, slightly angsty oneshot I posted on my Tumblr years back.)


"Wounds caused by Excalibur never heal," he tells Eve, seconds after meeting her for the second time. He isn't exactly speaking from experience, but he's learned to trust how dangerous magic can be, or at least to trust Judson.

So when Lamia flings the sword at him, some part of him realizes exactly what that means. He isn't dead yet - if it had been any other (non-magical) weapon, he'd actually have had pretty good odds of survival, provided he received the proper medical attention. (Even through his pain, his mind is running the numbers.) But it is Excalibur, and he has hours instead of the years he'd calculated.

(He'd actually gone through and looked at the average Librarian's lifespan once, only a few weeks after the first time he'd saved the world - prompted by his predecessor, who'd faked his own death, revealed himself as a member of the Serpent Brotherhood, and then was actually killed when he tried to take over the world.)

He is thinking all of these things as he falls to the ground in pain - the problem with an overactive mind like his is it never shuts off. He hears Lamia's words about the lock and the key, hears her telling her goons to kill him, and realizes there is absolutely nothing he can do about it in his position. (In the back of his mind he wonders if he'll get to add another tally mark to the 'Lived even after hearing leader of evil cult tell goons to kill me' scoreboard. Maybe not this time.)

But he isn't the only one in the Library at the moment and live he does, thanks to his supposed new guardian. He hurries over to the bookshelf, grabbing the oil of healing from its hiding place. He is still dying - magical wound, he reminds Eve and the others - but it will take longer. Hopefully long enough to get the crown and sword back.

And then they aren't in the library anymore, and it is just another adventure, and he is weak and wounded but he's been in pain before - he'll be alright. (Except he won't be, he's dying.)

Eve seems insistent on taking him to the hospital but instead they run into Jenkins, who seems to know what he is talking about, and for a moment Flynn thinks he is back in the Library. (And if he has to be supported by the possible librarians and put back together with duct tape and glue… Well, he has other things to worry about.)

But then he finds out they aren't actually in the Library, and Judson and Charlene are gone - the only two people he'd really talked to the last few years - and all the possible librarians had been murdered without him even noticing and he is _dying_. There is nothing left to do and he just wants his Library back. After all his adventures he's been unable to stop himself from wondering how and when he'll die - he'd never thought the Library would be gone too.

It is possible Judson is still there, Charlene could still be alive. (He can't calculate the odds here, as far as he knows this has never happened before, but it is possible. It has to be.) Finding the Library is the right thing to do.

"If that were the right thing to do Flynn Carson, you'd be doing it, not reading about it," Eve tells him, interrupting his reading and jolting him back to reality.

His mind flashes back to the conversation he'd overheard and he is up and running again. He's still dying, in pain and bleeding out, but he has the opportunity to save the world again as long as he's still in it.

Everyone knows about his situation now, so he doesn't bother hiding it, and he's oddly alright with that. The Library is gone, Charlene and Judson are gone - as long as he manages to save the world one more time before he's gone too, well, normally he'd say he could live with that but given the situation that doesn't feel like quite the right phrase.

He thinks the group is somehow under the impression that if they save the world that he'll be alright too, or maybe the notion of his death just hasn't hit them yet, but despite the pain and the blood loss he's not about to prove to them that it's all real.

Cassandra gives them a plan and despite the fact that the others don't trust her, Flynn does. He might not have done the same thing but she's dying and he can understand her reasoning. She's not a bad person.

Flynn, of course, goes right for Lamia and Excalibur, engaging in yet another sword fight no matter the pain from his gut. He's the Librarian. This is what he does.

They win, but Excalibur is fading, and he is too. There's just enough magic left in the sword for one great act.

He'd be lying if he says he hadn't thought about using it for himself - every thought crosses his mind at one point or another - but what he tells the others is also the truth. "Judson's gone, Charlene's gone, Excalibur's dying, it's time."

He doesn't think about how odd that would sound, coming from anyone else his age, but as a Librarian, he'd known the moment would come eventually. There's nothing left for him.

"Just touch it to your head," he manages to say. His last words, he thinks, and then he's gone.

He wakes with a jolt, completely healed and slightly disoriented, and Stone and Jones pull him to his feet. He turns to Cassandra.

"Oh," he says, realizing what she's done. "No, that was supposed to be for you." And though he's grateful to be alive, he truly means it.

It becomes a happy ending when he sees Judson again, renewing his hope of finding the Library. He lets the possible Librarians stay, assigns Eve as their guardian, and sets off to find his home.

He's the Librarian. His end will probably be bloody. But it hasn't come just yet.

* * *

 **AN: Just moving over some old fics from my Tumblr. Hope you like it!**


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